Pitch Decks

BREAKING: Newsletter platform beehiiv (founded by former Morning Brew employees) just raised a $33M Series B round. Here's a look at the company first seed pitch deck (which raised $2.6M), and how far they've come since ?? Since 2021,?beehiiv?has remained focused on one thing: being the best platform to build, grow, and monetize newsletters The platform was launched in 2021 by former Morning Brew employees Tyler Denk ?? and Benjamin Hargett ?? Their vision was to productize the internal toolset that got Morning Brew to 1.5M subscribers in 5 years. Back then, the company projected reaching $7.35M ARR in 18 months. Beehiiv reportedly hit $3M ARR revenue (up 200% YoY) in June 2023, hosting 7,500 active newsletters that generated 35M unique readers. The company's latest Series B round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Sapphire Sport, Lightspeed and others. Browse hundreds of pitch decks like this (100% free, no signup required) at https://lnkd.in/gVZcj4DW

I closed the first $2M ARR doing founder-led sales. If you’re doing founder-led sales, here is the deck structure that worked: 1/ First slide: Their world, not ours. The best decks start with the buyer’s situation. We frame their problem, so before we say word about our product, they’re already nodding along. 2/ Key objectives: What winning looks like. Buyers don’t just want a solution. They want a clear path to success. Make their goals explicit and position our solution as the natural next step. Keep the call focused on outcomes, not just features. 3/ Demo layout: No surprises. Only what they need. Set clear expectations upfront and only show what matters. We applied this by making our demo predictable. No feature dumps. Just the parts that solve their problem. 4/ Expected results & pricing: Value before cost. The best sales decks show the expected results first. When buyers see value before cost, pricing makes sense. 5/ Trial details: Clear, risk-free next steps. The best decks make the next step blindingly obvious to say yes. We designed ours to be frictionless with a 2-week trial and refundable deposit. This structure has shortened our sales cycles and increased win rates. If you’re a founder, steal this for your sales deck. What’s the worst mistake you’ve seen in a sales deck? Drop it below.

?? JUST OUT: Humane AI is winding down after raising $240M HP is acquiring the team, IP and software for $116M and all Humane AI pins will stop working in 10 days. The founders will lead a new AI PCs & printers division at HP. Here's the deck they used to raise $100M in 2021 ?? Humane was founded in 2018 by former Apple executives Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri This leaked 2021 deck (thus the low-res) was the public's first peak at what the secretive startup was building. At the time this deck leaked, everyone's best guess was that Humane was building a wearable camera device. The deck described the product as a "cloud connected sight enabled AI platform with service side app echo system." The AI pin attaches to your clothing using a magnetic clip, which is also the battery for the device. The camera is intended to capture moments you may otherwise miss for future memory recall. Sam Altman was one of the backers of Humane's $100M 2021 round, so it came as no surprise that the AI pin will be powered by OpenAI Humane envisioned their platform serving a wide range of purposes: from live broadcasting to senior monitoring and meditation. The launch announcement was met with mixed reactions, including a scathing review from MKBHD Inc. Just months after releasing, Humane was seeking to sell to HP for $1 billion according to The New York Times The AI pin sold only 10,000 units (their goal was 100k) as of April 2024. The company was facing issues on multiple fronts: In June 2024, Humane to tell users to "immediately" stop using their charging case due to issues that "may pose a fire safety risk" The NYT report also highlighted inner conflict at Humane (ie. some engineers were reportedly fired for questioning the readiness of the pin) Although Humane sold to HP for ~one-tenth of their initial asking price, it's still a still a whopping *~165x* revenue multiple. Humane investors will likely lose fifty cents on the dollar (having sold for $116M after raising $240M), but many consider this the best possible outcome for the company (employees keeps their jobs, and it's not a full writeoff). #startups #hardware #AI #acquisitions

?? Nuclear energy is so back! After Google and Amazon announced nuclear deals to power their AI?efforts, startups like nuclear tech companies Oklo Inc and NuScale Power stock jumped over 50% in the last two days ?? For NuScale Power, this week was as a massive comeback after laying off nearly half their staff in January. At that time, $SMR was at $3, down 75% from IPO. Now, the stock is at $19, up 88% from IPO ?? Oklo Inc (backed by?OpenAI?CEO,?Sam Altman back when he was at Y Combinator) is up 74% this week. The company was founded in 2013 by Jacob DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, and went public via SPAC this January. Oklo sells power to customers via their main product line, the Aurora nuclear reactor powerhouse. #AI #nuclear #cleanenergy #SPAC #startups

When it comes to pivoting gaming studios into billion-dollar startups,? Stewart Butterfield?is king: Flickr?(acq. Yahoo in 2005) was born after his first MMORPG failed Slack (acq. Salesforce in 2020) was built while working on his second game in 2012 Slack was originally built as an IM and team collaboration tool for Butterfield's second gaming studio, Tiny Speck. Slack publicly launched in 2013 after their flagship game Glitch closed down. Within a year, Slack had grown to 120,000 daily users. Last year (ten years since the app first launched), Slack had 38.8 million DAUs and brought in $5.96 billion in revenue ?? In late 2020, Salesforce agreed to pay over $27B to acquire Slack, their biggest acquisition of all-time. The deal deck highlighted the opportunity for enterprise expansion with Slack. Salesforce proved this vision quickly: within a year of the acquisition, Slack's annual revenue *tripled* from $900M to $3.3B in 2021. Like or share if you enjoyed this! Follow for more, or see the full Salesforce x Slack acquisition deck below ?? #startups #venturecapital #pitchdeck #tech

Today is Y Combinator's S24 demo day Over 10+ years ago, DoorDash pitched at YC S13 demo day. Today, $DASH market cap exceeds $59 billion ?? Here's a look at Tony Xu's original pitch ??

JUST OUT: WeWork founder Adam Neumann is refunding investors in his new startup, Flowcarbon, after failing to deliver any tokens or carbon credits Here's the pitch deck he used to raise $70M from investors like Andreessen Horowitz ?? Flowcarbon was founded in 2021 with the mission of putting carbon credits on the blockchain. Companies and individuals purchase carbon credits in order to offset unavoidable emissions. Each Goddess Nature Token was planned to be the equivalent of one carbon credit. Flowcarbon's partner, Verra (the biggest carbon credit certifier), has been mired in controversy after a study revealed "90% of [their] rainforest carbon offsets are worthless" Flowcarbon raised $32M in 2022 from?a16z crypto, Samsung Next, and? Invesco Ltd. $38 million came from sales of the Goddess Nature Token Their 2022 pitch deck heralded GNT as the "only truly viable" carbon credits token. Ironically, Flowcarbon hasn't delivered any tokens two years later. According to Forbes, Flowcarbon is now offering refunds to GNT token investors in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement and waiving any claims. Neumann was ousted from WeWork in 2019 after the company failed to go public due to concerns about its business model and governance. WeWork went bankrupt last year, but Neumann made over $700M from the SPAC ?? #carboncredits #startups #venturecapital #web3

Did you know the "gen z boss and a mini" company made >$10,000,000 this year? The story behind tbh Skincare and Rachael Wilde (Tyers) ?? #skincare #startups #tiktok #fundraising #founders?

JUST OUT: Topgolf and Callaway Golf are splitting after merging in 2021 $MODG stock is down over 60% since their merger, and down 32% this month alone (largely due to Topgolf's poor performance and high debt). The 2021 merger announcement said they were "Creating a Global Golf and Entertainment Leader" The new plan (announced today) is "Creating Two Market Leaders in the Expanding Modern Golf Industry" Both entities bring in billions in revenue: ? TopGolf made $1.8B in the last 12 months ? Callaway made $2.5B in the last 12 months The rationale provided for the separation is to maximize shareholder value through: ? Enhanced Strategic Focus ? Optimized Capital Allocation ? Simplified Operating Structure ? Distinct Investment Thesis The transaction is expected to complete in the second half of 2025, with $MODG spinning off at least 80.1% of Topgolf. See the full presentation below ?? #stocks #golf #investing #mergers

Carta's pitch decks through the years https://lnkd.in/gwyP5QNa